Menu

Bellum omnium contra omnes

The Quick Look At The 112th

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. Fail to honor people, They fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say, “We did this ourselves.”

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

_________________________________

Talk is that during the 112th congress, the President will have to play defense a lot, will be forced to do much hard work to keep his signature legislation from being dismantled by a congress hellbent on terminating health care, stock market regulation, and to cut discretionary spending, in order to weaken him and defund his education and energy initiatives, among other things.

I see it a little differently, not a lot, a little. Most of that statement does stand up to scrutiny. The attempts to defund his initiatives? Count on it. Will it work? We’ll see what the Republican controlled house can do. I honestly don’t know that they will be that powerful. Two things would hold them back.

Presidential veto power and the fine art of compromise. If the Republican controlled house tries stand alone initiatives to stifle the President’s agenda, they’ll be crushed, vetoed if it even gets past the senate, and they know it. They will try to attach any Democratic agenda killing initiatives to larger legislation, in order to make the President pay a steep price for keeping his legislative agenda intact.

_________________________________

Viddy of the day: Congressman Kucinich discusses the next Congress on MSNBC with Ceng Uyger. Denny is a helluva good guy, Like his points here. Good stuff. If we listen to Rep. Kucinich, we would go far in the world. The man stands up and states the liberal agenda eloquently, and in such a way as is easily agreeable. America could use more of that.

________________________________

Nothing there no one doesn’t already know. But the President will compromise as best as possible to do for America what he thinks needs to be done, while doing just as much, or as little, as he can to placate the regressive conservative agenda. But seeing how most of the differences between the Democrats and Republicans, when it boils down, is usually a matter of degrees, or more accurately a matter of a few percent in the budget, it should not be that much of a real fight.

The Polititainers, the O’Reilly’s and Matthews’ of the world, will have a field day with every minute victory and defeat the Obama administration lives through, but as for real qualitative effect on actual policy will be smaller than the press will let on. If they can’t have a great story, they will make one.

Again, nothing people don’t already know. Perhaps the biggest unknown at this point will be what kind of player Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California will be in the Republican controlled house. I know very little of him, and I know a fair bit about the ongoing actions of the house. What I do know about him is that he is a relatively new player in the house, having only been around since 2007. John Boehner trusts this man, or at the very least likes him, seeing how he was placed, as a freshman in 2008, on the Republican steering committee.

I’m interested to see him in action, I expect to see a lot of him in the next few months. Expect to read about it here.

_______________________________

That’s it from here, America. I’ve sent out another resume, but only one, and one isn’t enough. I must away to seek proper employment. G’night!